Sep 24, 2004   | COMMENTS     

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Brian Hughes served four years with an Army Ranger unit while keeping a potentially career-ending secret: He is gay. Hughes is one of 30 gay service members interviewed for a survey that criticized the way the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is working in Iraq and Afghanistan — the first war since the policy was enacted 11 years ago. The policy is seen as meaningless and unenforceable, preventing gay troops from bonding with their peers, according to the survey by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California in Santa Barbara. “Gays are serving openly without incident, but the policy itself is causing trouble,” said Nathaniel Frank, the author of the survey and a research fellow at the Santa Barbara center. Hughes, 26, said the policy forced him to lie to other members of his unit, who often talked about their sexual exploits. Although he enjoyed the Army, he said he did not re-enlist because of family pressures and because of the stress that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy had on his life.

GOP mailing warns of banned Bibles, gay marriage if liberals win election
WASHINGTON (AP) — Campaign mail with a return address of the Republican National Committee warns West Virginia voters that the Bible will be prohibited and men will marry men if liberals win in November. The literature shows a Bible with the word “BANNED” across it and a photo of a man, on his knees, placing a ring on the hand of another man with the word “ALLOWED.” The mailing tells West Virginians to “vote Republican to protect our families” and defeat the “liberal agenda.” Republican National Committee Chair Ed Gillespie said last week that he wasn’t aware of the mailing, but said it could be the work of the RNC. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we were mailing voters on the issue of same-sex marriage,” Gillespie said. The flier says Republicans support defining marriage as between a man and a woman and will nominate conservative judges who will “interpret the law and not legislate from the bench.”

Gay couples file federal lawsuit against anti-gay Okla. adoption law
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Three gay couples filed a federal lawsuit last week seeking to overturn a law that prohibits Oklahoma from recognizing adoptions by same-sex couples from other states and countries. The lawsuit alleges the measure, which is an amendment to the Oklahoma Adoption Code, “appears to sever legal ties between parents and their children whenever families led by same-gender couples enter the state of Oklahoma.” Gov. Brad Henry signed the law in May. It was drafted by 17 state lawmakers after Attorney General Drew Edmondson issued an opinion in April requiring the state to recognize all adoptions, regardless of the gender of parents. A gay couple from Washington state, Ed Swaya and Greg Hampel, sought the opinion when they asked for a birth certificate listing both of them as their daughter’s parents. The state Health Department had initially refused to list Swaya because he was not the birth mother.

New York judge refuses to invalidate gay marriages
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A state judge refused to invalidate gay marriages performed in New Paltz, while still preventing village officials from performing more same-sex unions without marriage licenses. State Supreme Court Justice Michael Kavanagh ruled that to invalidate the licenses, all the couples would have to be named parties to the case with the right to be heard in court, and the lawsuit has failed to do that. Matthew Staver, head of the conservative legal group Liberty Counsel, said last week they plan to name the couples and try to have the marriages invalidated. More than 200 same-sex marriages have been performed in the Hudson Valley village this year, with clergy presiding now at about a dozen every other week, said E. Joshua Rosenkranz, attorney for Mayor Jason West.

Mich. official’s opinion on adoption sparks concern on gay rights
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — An attorney general’s legal opinion that same-sex couples married in Massachusetts cannot adopt a child together in Michigan has angered gay-rights advocates and others who said last week it disregards ...